Organizers

As conference organizers, we aimed to explore whether a critical security lens, informed by insights across time and group-specific experiences, can be emboldened for the benefit of scholarship, policy, and Canadian society.

The Critical Reflections on Security, 9/11 and the Canadian Settler Colony Conference brings together scholars, community members, legal experts, and students to take stock of the impact of the “war on terror” on marginalized communities. Specifically, our project examines:

  • The extent to which the “war on terror” created or exacerbated racial divides;

  • How these divides are inherent within the settler colonial state;

  • How Indigenous and racialized communities have challenged structural racism in national security policing; and

  • The ways in which community-led understandings of the dynamics and consequences of national security laws, policies and practices might inform research and policy transformations.

Inspired by critical security studies, this outreach project assesses the promise of fostering a critical security paradigm that sees social justice as integral to national security. Previous research has drawn attention to the human rights implications of the “war on terror” on marginalized communities. But, existing scholarship in Canada does not sustainably integrate comparative community experiences and critical race perspectives, nor does it sufficiently interrogate the assumption that national security and human rights must be traded off against each other.

Reem Bahdi
Dean and Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor

Reem Bahdi was appointed the Dean of Windsor Law on July 1, 2021. She joined the faculty in 2002 where her teaching and research has focused on access to justice in both Canada and Palestine. Dean Bahdi co-created and co-Directed KARAMAH, The Project on Judicial Independence and Human Dignity, a multi-million dollar initiative which aimed to support human dignity in Palestine through research, continuing judicial education and directed civil society engagement. She has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice and the Associate Dean of Windsor Law between 2012 and 2015. She is recipient of the 2017 Guthrie Medal for her research, teaching and advocacy in furtherance of access to justice in Ontario and was appointed a member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists in 2015 for national research excellence. The Student Law Society at Windsor Law has bestowed the award for exemplary teaching and dedication to Windsor Law on her three times and the University of Windsor has recognized her research with five distinguished teaching awards. Professor Bahdi is the first Palestinian Law Professor in Canadian history and the first Palestinian Law Dean in North America.

Yasmeen Abu-Laban
Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights, Department of Political Science, University of Alberta

Yasmeen Abu-Laban is Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights at the University of Alberta. She is also a Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.  Her published research addresses themes relating to: ethnic and gender politics; nationalism, globalization and processes of racialization; immigration policies and politics; surveillance and border control; and multiculturalism and anti-racism. She served as President of the Canadian Political Science Association (2016-2017), and as Vice-President of the International Political Science Association (2018-2021). She is currently the founding Chair of Research Committee 46 (Migration and Citizenship) in the International Political Science Association.

Jeffrey Monaghan
Associate Professor, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Carleton University

Jeffrey Monaghan is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. His research examines practices of security governance, policing, and surveillance; much of which is focussed on how policing is an extension of settler colonialism. His recent books include Policing Indigenous Movements (2018, co-authored with Andrew Crosby), Protests in the Information Age (2018, co-edited with Lucas Melgaço), Security Aid (2017), and the recently published edited volume Disbility (In)Justice: Confronting Criminalization in Canada (2022, co-edited with Kelly Fritsch and Emily van der Meulen).

Fahad Ahmad
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan University

Fahad Ahmad is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University. Prior to joining Toronto Metropolitan University, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD at the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University. His doctoral research, supported by SSHRC and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, comparatively examined the securitization of Muslim civil society organizations under national security regimes in Canada and the U.K. He is currently preparing a book manuscript based on his dissertation.

Fahad is an interdisciplinary scholar interested in critical terrorism/radicalization studies; racialized practices of national security policing and surveillance; civil society and resistance; and justice and community-oriented approaches to the study of philanthropy. His scholarship is informed by 15 years of work experience in community and nonprofit organizations in Canada and the U.S.

Valeria Kuri
Conference Convenor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor

Valeria Kuri Toro graduated from the Windsor Law’s class of 2021 in the combined 4-year MSW/JD program at the University of Windsor. Valeria was heavily involved in student-led organizing, public legal education, critical race, access to justice, and developing an ethical, community-focused, and trauma-informed approach to her practice. Valeria re-ratified the Disability Student Law Society of Windsor and acted as club president for her final year. She also filled roles as president of the Women of Color Legal Alliance of Windsor, and vice-president of the Shkawebisag Student Law Society. Valeria was also involved academically as a Teaching Assistant for Professor Sylvia McAdam’s Indigenous Legal Orders Course for 3 semesters, and a Research Assistant for Dr. Laverne Jacobs’ Law, Disability, and Social Change Project for the entirety of her program from 2017-2021. 

Being part of such diverse and impassioned teams led by racialized faculty and students provided Valeria with the freedom to develop and inform both her legal and social work practice while continuing to engage in meaningful community work. After graduating, Valeria completed her articling term at Pooranlaw Professional Corporation, focusing on labour and employment, human rights, and disability rights. She is currently taking a year off practice to pursue research opportunities.